River Guerilla

Water Samples from the 12th points of Code River, located in Juminahan village in the center of Yogyakarta

After the field survey activities, we then proceed in making a plan to take water samples from Code River. The method that we took was referring to the standard procedure of water pollutant analysis in Indonesia. The difficult part of the method was that we have to take 3 samples (2 from different sides and 1 from the center) of each locations while there was 25 locations from the upstream of Code River until the south end of Yogyakarta. The samples must be taken on the same time on each location. Considering that there is very limited personals in Lifepatch, we asked Green Tech Community and the citizen in Juminahan area to help us collecting the water samples since they have participated in the water sampling workshop we conducted last year.

Upstream of Code River is still natural and shallow

At 10.00 AM on the 13 September 2014, we gathered at Lifepatch and each of us brought 3 sterilised sampling bottles. We spread to all the location with Agus Tri Budiarto giving some notes on every position to the responsible personals. This is where the survey come in handy since several locations have no access for motorcycles to get near the location or the personals have to take different route to get down to the river. Most of the difficult positions are located in the center of the city.

Budi Prakosa taking water samples on the upstream of Code River

We made an arrangement for everyone to wait in each location until 11.00 AM then take the water samples. It’s quite near for the person that took water samples in the location in the city, but they will have trouble in getting down to the river, while for the upstream it will take some time to get to the location with all the traffic distance.

Code River in Juminahan area have limited access for people to get down to the river

We took all the water samples and store it on the fridge to keep it fresh and prevent bacterial growth. Few hours after the water sampling, we did the inoculation of every water samples. Okvit Musdalifah, a student of Microbiology – Agriculture Faculty UGM was doing the water sample analysis. With the development of the lab we did last year, Laboratorium Bioelektronika Lifepatch now have the adequate infrastructure to do the analysis.